Question and Answer with James Fuller

A representative from the Corgan architectural firm based out of Dallas gives a presentation to MISD board members James Fuller, left, Superintendent Dr. Ryder Warren, center, and Karen Nicholson, right, Thursday in the MISD Boardroom. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

A representative from the Corgan architectural firm based out of Dallas gives a presentation to MISD board members James Fuller, left, Superintendent Dr. Ryder Warren, center, and Karen Nicholson, right,

A representative from the Corgan architectural firm based out of Dallas gives a presentation to MISD board members James Fuller, left, Superintendent Dr. Ryder Warren, center, and Karen Nicholson, right, Thursday in the MISD Boardroom. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

A representative from the Corgan architectural firm based out of Dallas gives a presentation to MISD board members James Fuller, left, Superintendent Dr. Ryder Warren, center, and Karen Nicholson, right,

MRT: How important are these elections for the community when it comes to picking school board members?

Fuller: I think any school board election is important. To put it in simple terms, school board elections are important because students and teachers are at stake. ... I personally have made it a point over the years to be very deliberative in what is going on in education in general, public ed in particular.

And I tried to serve in that capacity as a school board member.

MRT: How would you compare the next four years? Is there a greater amount of urgency? Do you approach it differently than the previous four years?

Fuller: The past four years, the past eight years, even the past 12 years have seen a different dynamic in that the demographics in our community have changed significantly and our student population has changed dramatically. As a result of that, the district has had to come to grips that we haven’t changed as much as we ought to (changes in the academic curriculum to accommodate the new demographic). ... In other words, with the diversity has come a challenge of diversifying our ability to deliver education to all of our children. So that means we can’t have a cookie-cutter approach to educating our children in Midland.

Differentiating instruction is in my opinion a part of the solution. Raising expectations is another part of it. I don’t think we can afford to explain away our lack of performance because of economically disadvantaged populations or free-and-reduced (lunch) populations.

It has changed in that the demographic shift has put us in a unique position to revise the way we have done business in the past.

MRT: Is it wrong to think Ryder Warren’s departure provides that opportunity?

Fuller: The bottom line is void of him or another superintendent; the answer to the question is, yes. If he was here the challenge or opportunity would still be with us.

MRT: Could it have happened with Ryder?

Fuller: I think so. I am an impatient person. I think we should work more vigorously and expeditiously to turn this thing around. The seven or so schools that have been recognized as failing could be the barometer that we use as a district this year to give evidence to our community, to our respective constituents that ‘hey, we got this thing in order and these are the things we are doing to improve.’

MRT: What did you make of Clarence Scharbauer’s donation?

Fuller: It was timely. And as others have said — and I don’t want to be a parrot — it was simply reflective of his genuine interest in the well-being and welfare of public education in the community.

MRT: What do you think of the movement of businesses and foundations making a priority to get that much more involved in education?

Fuller: I think it is a good thing. I think in too many instances looking back, these business entities and foundations have either not or had limited involvement in public ed. Again this is part of the situation. We have come into reality. It is no longer the situation that we can assume that the ISD is going to take care of the ISD. ... It is an integral partnership or should be. As a result, entities investing in public ed are no different that oil companies investing in land. The difference is, our investment informs the economics, the politics, the social ramifications of our community.

MRT: The Education Midland process — what do make of the Educate Midland rollout?

Fuller: They were necessary. They were inspirations. They were upbeat. But that was just the first phase. It was like a pep rally to some extent. We got motivated and we were reminded on more than one occasion that it takes the entire community to make success happen. So now we are at a point where Educate Midland and the community in general will have to get down and do the grunt work. The way we have done business as it relates to these type of initiatives in the past has got to change, in my opinion.

Grassroots people are going to have to be deliberately involved by Educate Midland in addressing solutions to the challenges we face.